Director Michael Morris Exits E! Pilot ‘Songbyrd’ Amid Scandal

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Morris has fallen out of directingSongbyrd, one of E!‘s first two scripted pilots. Morris, who previously directed seven episodes of NBC’s Smash, was to reunite with Smash executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who executive produce the music-themedSongbyrd that centers on songwriter Lauren Byrd (Bethany Joy Lenz), a character loosely inspired by hitmaker Diane Warren, and her staff. The move comes amid controversy surrounding photos released on Tuesday of Morris, a married father of three, kissing Smash star Katharine McPhee. Ironically, Morris’ most recent credit is directing the second episode of ABC’s new drama Betrayal, which chronicles an extramarital affair.

How does this affect his ability to direct a TV show? Who cares who he’s dating! Only an issue if Katharine McPhee was going to be part of “Songbyrd.”

Billy • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

You’re kidding, right? Since when does Hollywood care about this? Sheesh!!

Sarah • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

Only in America.

BE • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

This is so ridiculous that it can’t be true. Really, how fascist is Hollywood!

Loretta • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

How is this anything more than a private matter?

Me • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

Why did all the commenters above assume that “Hollywood”‘pushed him out? Obviously he bailed to get his life in order, leaving the studio scrambling. Studios couldnt give a crap abt who you kiss in a parking lot.

Michelle • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

Exactly! As if they would fire him over this…please.

Writer/Producer • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

Michael chose to exit the project so that he could stay in LA and focus on his family during this turbulent time. He was supported in a very kind & human way by both studio and network. On this occasion, ‘Hollywood’ got it right.

Frank • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

I feel bad for his wife and kids. This should all be handled in private. (By the way, his wife is ridiculously hot.)

nicole420 • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

The stars don’t seem to know what MONOGAMY means, must be they believe there above it all, they don’t have it in themselves to keep a strong relationship with one person at a time!!!!

AtLongLast • on Oct 24, 2013 12:45 pm

About Katharine McPhee. Well I’m a fan of hers, used to be a big fan in the past. Anyways got a story of my own since she’s been in the news lately about cheating.

Regarding what happened between us well that’s a long long story. I’ve been a fan of hers since American Idol in 2006. I’ve seen her in concert a couple times and I have also met her in the past too and she knows all about me of course.

You see in 2006 she found out about me from reading my post on one of the fan forums I joked about wanting to meet her and asking her out and such. Im the same age as her but being young back then you know I was joking. Anyways she saw my post and was not thrilled about it but didn’t make much of it.

Anyways in August of 2007 I saw her again at Six Flags St. Louis and met her too and she of course knew who I was when I met her. She was a little shy and timid around me but she acted cool still and I was quite happy since I was a big fan of hers. I thought she was really nice. Anyways after that things got worse. The fans HATE me. She used myspace at the time and they would constantly email her about me and tell her all sorts of BS and that about me trying to get her to hate me and that. Same with Kats mom. Kats mom interacts with fans and they would email her about me too. I know because of this in 2006 American Idol would not give out any meet greet passes for St. Louis. One of the radio stations told me when they asked for them for contests they were told none were allowed for St. Louis. I then heard thru the grapevine because people emailed kats mom and that.

Anyways I messaged Kat on myspace quite a bit trying to talk to her and tell her that I’m not a bad person because the fans would tell her lots of stuff about me from the forums and make up stuff. Like at concerts some of her super fans “all females” also would talk about me too and talks to kats husband about me via email too. I tried talking to Kat, her mom and Nick but it would fall on death ears.

This is when things went downhill in a hurry. On election day 2008 I got a phonecall. Yea Kat had my phone number because I supplied it to Katharine if she wanted to speak to me. The phonecall was from the Los Angeles District Attorneys office. The guy a spoke with the investigator said how Kat wanted to press charges on me and file for a restraining order. Yep. I only met her ONCE and talked to her via myspace and based on all the things fans would tell her about me she went to the police.

Now we don’t know is if it was her people that went to them. See at that time her mngt company had a security company the also worked for them that handled her affairs and kat and her husband told them about me because I emailed Nick and explained the situation to him and right after that this security company emailed me as well as a family friend of kats who btw berated and cussed at me. Below at the end of this email is a tweet kat sent me and a direct link to it.

All this was embarrassing. Also a couple years ago Katharine publicly lashed out at me on twitter because I told someone that I wouldn’t donate to kats charity because of my incident. Kat sent me a tweet and lashed out saying she was going to “get me in trouble” That really hurt.

Also it hurt my image possibly as well as my full name was used before and shows up on fan websites and google now if one searchs for it and because of what the fans said about me makes me look like a total moron and could be damaging when trying to apply for jobs. The tweet was a few years ago but I have the text of it saved and that too is posted below. She nearly ruined my life as I would been infamous and would never been able to find a job then.

@IthinkKatishot and ill get you in trouble again…so stop following me. You not supposed to be contacting me.